Oil company executives testify before Congress
An amendment inserted into a bill before the U.S. Senate says the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada is in the national interest though project critics cried foul…Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., inserted an amendment into an energy conservation bill before the U.S. Senate…
Hoeven said Keystone XL, which would bring Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, would shield North American energy markets from overseas turmoil and “ensure true North American energy independence.”
Even if that wasn’t a lie, even if Hoeven wasn’t just another meat puppet for Big Oil, the amendment is designed to support opposition to energy efficiency in our national infrastructure. Not the function of this legislation.
President Obama said he’d weigh the project against its environmental footprint. The heavier type of crude oil designated for the pipeline is seen by critics as more corrosive to pipelines and more carbon intensive than other grades.
Anthony Swift, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said a provision for Keystone XL has no place in an energy-efficiency bill.
“Senators should reject this measure,” he said Thursday. “The proposed tar sands pipeline would increase carbon pollution and make climate change worse.”
Too bad the 19th Century populists have no conception of ethical and democratic debate. I guess their unwillingness to put forward opposing bills and allow debate on all sides of the issue reflects nothing more than their gutless fear of entering a competition which isn’t rigged.
But, then, the Confederate mindset never was especially big on encouraging open debate.
Eideard 
“Republican hypocrites + spineless Democrats” — that pretty much covers 95% of every politician inside the Beltway – from the Mayor Washington, DC to Congress, the White House, Pentagon and an army of faceless administrators.
It’s too bad Keystone has become the whipping boy for anti-oil activists.
It would be the newest, safest, smartest pipeline of the literally thousands that function today.
Could be – except for two additional features: first, the combination of heat and chemicals pretty much required to make oil sands petroleum move through a pipeline; second, solidarity with Canadian and First Nation activists who oppose the root project.
I have no problem with the premises of any of the technology if carried out to responsible standards. A lifetime of experience with the oil industry and American politicians ain’t confidence-inspiring.